RCR & Scholarly Activity In-Person Training

Introduction

Why is UK mandating RCR training?

“As a public institution of higher education, public confidence in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) by faculty, staff and students is critical. We must promote and maintain a culture that is supported by an infrastructure that educates and assists in the ethical conduct of research.”

Lisa Cassis PhD, UK Vice President for Research (VPR)

UK has had research misconduct cases in the past few years due to a failure of some researchers to follow Responsible Conduct of Research.

This effects:

  • The reputation of UK and its researchers;
  • Researchers/research personnel affiliated with the wrongdoer;
  • Personnel managing the process for research misconduct;
  • Researchers doing honest work that could have received the research funding used;
  • General public if faulty data is used in publications is relied upon by the medical community, product development, etc.

Areas of RCR Training at UK

  • Mentoring
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Peer Review
  • Research Misconduct
  • Data Management
  • Reproducibility

What Will The Rest of the Day Look Like?

  • Observe 3 case studies
  • Discuss in groups
  • Summarize key points

Must have minimum 1 hour of contact together

Case Study One

Research Misconduct

Let’s talk plagiarism!

Through this case, learners will:

  • learn about ethical issues with regard to plagiarism
  • learn about available plagiarism resources
  • consider ethical writing practices

Case Study #1

Discussion

  1. Sum up the general problem under scrutiny.
  2. What aspects of the scenario stood out the most to the group.
  3. Was the graduate student right to be concerned about this practice?
  4. What do you think of the post-doc’s explanation for why he used old papers?
  5. What might happen if the PI does not change the text before publication.
  6. What do you think of GS’ decision to not talk to anyone about her concerns?
  7. What could happen is she does pursue this line of questioning?
  8. What would you do in her place?

Additional Resources

Case Study Two

Conflict of Interest

An NSF panelist gives a proposal favorable scores even though the proposal was written by her co-PIs. She did not disclose this information to the panel prior to the review.

Through this case, learners will:

  • learn about conflicts of interest
  • learn the importance of disclosing conflicts of interest

Case Study #2

Discussion

  1. What are the issues with this scenario?
  2. How should the alleged conflict of interest have been handled?
  3. Can a reviewer provide both a positive and a negative review?
  4. Why would a reviewer fail to disclose a potential conflict of interest?
  5. Are there reasons that are excusable?

Additional Resources

Case Study Three

Peer Review

A PI is voicing his frustrations with his colleague regarding a recent critical review he received on a manuscript submitted for publication

Through this case, learners will:

  • learn about ethical conduct related to the peer-review process

Case Study #3

Discussion

  1. Sum up the general problem under scrutiny.
  2. What are the PIs options in this situation?
  3. If you suspect the motivations behind a review, how would you decide what edits/requests are valid and which are superfluous?
  4. What would motivate a peer review to purposefully slow down someone’s publication?
  5. What can be done to prevent this from happening?

Additional Resources

Feedback

Reflect

  • What were your big takeaways from the training today?
  • What lingering questions do you still have regarding the content?
  • How might you improve this training speciically for faculty in SIS in the future?

Case Studies

Post-session RCR Case Study Survey - https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_79CaFBt2jglwtMi

Thank you!!

Questions?